1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to methods of and apparatus for magnetically sensing the denomination of paper currency, and, in particular, for sensing the denomination of U.S. Federal Reserve Notes. Accordingly, it is a general object of this invention to provide new and improved methods and apparatus of such character.
2. Description of the Prior Art
This invention deals with the determination or verification of the denomination of U.S. currency by way of magnetic pattern recognition while the currency is undergoing a high speed sorting and counting process.
It is desirable to automate cash handling procedures in spite of two prevalent problems:
1. An accounting problem that arises when tellers inadvertently place a Note of one denomination into a packet of Notes of some different denomination, for example, a five dollar Federal Reserve Note in with a packet of ten dollar Federal Reserve Notes.
2. A denominating problem that arises when unscrupulous individuals "raise" the value of a Note of one denomination by physical alteration of the numerals in the corners of the Note. One form of deception is to either carefully draw in "0's" after "1's" of a one dollar Federal Reserve Note, or to paste the corners torn from a legitimate ten dollar Federal Reserve Note over the "1's" of a one dollar Federal Reserve Note, thus converting a genuine one dollar Federal Reserve Note into an apparent or fraudulent ten dollar Federal Reserve Note.
In general, the prior art has been concerned with the authenticity of U.S. currency by detection or differentiation of patterns of magnetic ink on the obverse faces of the Notes. The prior art generally does not teach methods of denomination verification.
The instant invention overcomes the foregoing problems by determining the true denomination of each Note and comparing it against a desired denomination. Methods and apparatus in accordance with the invention permit the detection and consequent removal of incorrect denomination of currency for substantive corrective action by automated methods. In addition, authenticity can be determined to high accuracy.